“To be misunderstood can be the writer’s punishment for having disturbed the reader’s peace. The greater the disturbance, the greater the possibility of misunderstanding.”
— Anatole Broyard
Tag: how to
Live & Write, But Don’t Live & Write
“The writer must earn money in order to be able to live and to write, but he must by no means live and write for the purpose of making money.”
— Karl Marx
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Motivation IS Possible
[found on time.com; by Eric Barker]
“You make goals… but then you procrastinate.
You write a to-do list… but then you don’t follow through.
And this happens again and again and again. Seriously, what’s the problem?
Why are we so good at thinking of what to do but so terrible at actually doing those things?
The problem is you’re skipping an essential step. Here’s what it is….
Productivity systems rarely take emotions into account. And feelings are a fundamental and unavoidable part of why humans do what they do.
We can’t ignore our emotions. Because of the way our brains are structured, when thought and feelings compete, feelings almost always win.
And we can’t fight our feelings. Research shows this just makes them stronger….
We need to think to plan but we need to feel to act.
So if you’ve got the thinking part out of the way – how do you rile up those emotions and get things done?
Get Positive
When do we procrastinate the most? When we’re in a bad mood.Get Rewarded
Rewards feel good. Penalties feel bad. And that’s why they both can work well for motivating you. Research shows that rewards are responsible for three-quarters of why you do things.Get Peer Pressure
Surround yourself with people you want to be and it’s far less taxing to do what you should be doing.”
To read the rest of the motivating article from Eric Barker, and add his knowledge to your toolbox, click HERE.
[found on http://time.com/2933971/how-to-motivate-yourself-3-steps-backed-by-science/]
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Shake Up the Familiar
“It is the function of art to renew our perception. What we are familiar with we cease to see. The writer shakes up the familiar scene, and, as if by magic, we see a new meaning in it.”
— Anaïs Nin
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Work at the Language
“Of course, there are those critics – New York critics as a rule – who say, ‘Well, Maya Angelou has a new book out and of course it’s good but then she’s a natural writer.’ Those are the ones I want to grab by the throat and wrestle to the floor because it takes me forever to get it to sing. I work at the language.”
— Maya Angelou
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Creative Pattern Recognition
“Storytelling is ultimately a creative act of pattern recognition. Through characters, plot and setting, a writer creates places where previously invisible truths become visible. Or the storyteller posits a series of dots that the reader can connect.”
— Douglas Coupland
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Nothing — Everything
Highlight to Success
[by Billi Joy Carson, Senior Editor/ Editing Addict]
Editor Tip: Highlight to Success
Every writer—no matter how strong a wordsmith—has at least one crutch word. To the author, the words remain hidden, and unseen, but to the reader, the words become machine-gun weapon rounds every time they read them.
The words are different for each author, just as style and genre differ. The impact of the words on the readers, however, remains the same. The more crutch words you have, the greater the possibility you will lose your readership. The pain of hitting word after word after word becomes greater than the desire to keep reading.
Have you noticed the number of times a variation of word has been used in these two paragraphs? Ten times in a ninety-five word count. A deft killer of writing, hiding in plain sight. Crutch words.
What are the most popular crutch words?
They are the small ones. Innocuous. Overlooked in read-throughs, and missed in proofing: and, had, that, my, he, she, it, her, him, said, looked, saw, turned, smiled, be, is, was, were, been.
Steps to becoming crutch-free:
1. Search [Edit/Find All] your manuscript for each crutch word listed above. You might be surprised how many times they pop up in your book.
2. Highlight all occurrences of the word you’re searching for (e.g. that)
a. How many highlights are clustered together?
b. If you feel annoyed seeing all the highlights…
(1) …guess how your readers feel?
(2) Time to fix it.
3. Rework the areas where the highlights show up clustered together
a. Many can simply be deleted without changing the meaning
(1) The man that was sitting at the table, told her that she was beautiful.
(2) The man, sitting at the table, told her she was beautiful.
b. Some can be reworded, or reordered, to strengthen the writing.
First paragraphs with highlight method:
Every writer—no matter how strong a wordsmith—has at least one crutch word. To the author, the words remain hidden, and unseen, but to the reader, the words become machine-gun weapon rounds every time they read them.
The words are different for each author, just as style and genre differ. The impact of the words on the readers, however, remains the same. The more crutch words you have, the greater the possibility you will lose your readership. The pain of hitting word after word after word becomes greater than the desire to keep reading.
First paragraphs reworded:
Every writer—no matter how strong a wordsmith—has at least one crutch word. To the author, it remains hidden, and unseen, but to the reader, the writing becomes machine-gun weapon rounds every time they read them.
The weaknesses are different for each author, just as style and genre differ. The impact on the readers, however, remains the same. The more crutches you have, the greater the possibility you will lose your readership. The pain of hitting word after word becomes greater than the desire to keep reading.
Once you master this, you will keep your writing alive, and retain your readership. It’s a tedious task the first two or three times, but it will eventually be second nature to you.
Questions for the editor to answer next time:
[by Billi Joy Carson, Senior Editor / Editing Addict]
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Tips From the Editor
Always Beginning
“The artist is always beginning. Any work of art which is not a beginning, an invention, a discovery is of little worth.”
— Ezra Pound
Editing Addict, LLC 